POPPETS!!!

Magical tools that we use in our workings
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So, I’ve had this article on my mind for awhile. I LOVE poppets, but I think they’re a really undervalued and underutilized practice – mostly because people have very specific ideas about what poppets are used for (yay Hollywood voodoo dolls) but also because people honestly think they’re difficult to make and thus too much of a bother. I was talking with someone recently about it, and they were under the impression that cloth poppets were beyond their skills. While I did take the time to explain that there are very simple patterns online (some of them actually look like those people on public bathroom doors – you know, the woman in a dress, the man standing straight?) and that even if you don’t know how to sew that well, you can find really simple videos on youtube.

They are incredibly flexible – easily adapted to any purpose, nearly effortless and inexpensive to make, powerful, and very, VERY effective – for protection, for blessings, and for casting direct focused spells – definitely a valuable and multifaceted addition to every practitioner’s tool kit. They’re also a really good way to express your more creative and crafty side – something that a lot of practitioners express a desire for, but never seem to have any ideas about.

Poppets have been used for centuries, possibly millennia, as offerings, representatives, and foci, BECAUSE of their simplicity, versitility, and effectiveness. Corn dollies, clay or wax figurines, cloth stuffed, knitted or crocheted dolls, even actual plastic or porcelain dolls (yup, even Barbie dolls), can all be used, and there are plenty of traditions which use poppets where using whatever’s on hand is a core part of the practice, so the materials are often scraps – leftover candle wax, discarded quilting materials, mud from the yard, old toys.

Generally speaking, poppets require a “taglock” – an item of connection. This can include clothing, a photograph, hair, fingernails, toenails, saliva, sexual fluids, blood, or some kind of deeply personal object. Sometimes these things go into the construction of the doll, or in its innards, other times the items are burned, and the ashes are used. Because poppets are usually handmade, and every step of the way you are focusing on the intended use, poppets are one of the more powerful spell practices, but with that added power comes the need for care – muddled thinking, muddled emotions, can create disastrous results, so it’s important that your intention be very simple, at least in the beginning when you’re learning this type of spell work.

In my article about Using Proxies as a Means of Protection and Defense viewtopic.php?f=127&t=9060 one of the items I discuss is a poppet. That poppet is for personal defense, acting as a lodestone for magickal and psychic attacks, but the more common uses of poppets (again, thank you Hollywood -_-) are love spells, bindings, and baneful magick. However, they are definitely not limited to such things. Corn dollies were made to both celebrate and cause a bountiful harvest, and fertility dolls are found all over the world. Dolls have also been used as spirit houses – for household spirits and representatives of our ancestors to holding familiars and servitors. We can even trace idols back to the use of poppets – carving the likeness of our gods in order to celebrate their stories and forge a deeper connection.

Making a poppet is fairly easy. Cloth, clay, wax, knitted or crocheted wool, or some type of basket-weaving material are the best options today. Patterns for simple cloth dolls are all over the internet – simply print out the pattern, lay it over your material, and trace the shape with a sewing pencil. Do this twice, cut the material, and sew the doll together with the back of the material facing out, leaving a little bit open so you can stuff it with whatever you need. Turn it right side in, stuff it with stuffing, herbs, a cloth heart, ashes, a photograph, whatever you need. You can purchase small swatches of material from any craft store, as they’re often used in quilting. They may be patterned, but they’re inexpensive. If you need a specific color, you may end up paying a little bit more, but even solid color materials are relatively cheap. I do suggest purchasing a pair of sewing scissors, rather than using household or paper scissors, as material does not cut well with a duller blade, and most household or paper scissors are not made sharp enough.

Knitted or crocheted poppets may be the most powerful of all the poppets, because you involve the act of weaving into their creation – with every stitch, you fill your poppet with purpose. However, such poppets aren’t very good at holding herbs or ash – they’re better suited to more solid items due to their porousness. Again, patterns are easily discovered online.

Wax and clay dolls are a little more and a little less involved depending. You can purchase oven-bake clay from the craft section of Walmart – this is particularly useful if you intent to leave your poppet out in the elements to slowly wear away, but that type of clay isn’t recommended for a poppet you intend to keep long-term. Wax is also an easy and fast poppet material. You will want to heat wax until it’s soft enough to mold, but not completely melted. Shape the wax into a figure. Both the wax and the clay can be easier to use liquid taglocks or ashes on, because you can mix these things into them, or create a pocket to hold them, and then fold the wax or clay over the filled pocket before hardening it. Be careful with clay pockets, because in the baking process, these can crack and break open, or if you’re using a kiln for a permanent doll, cause the doll to explode – make sure to remove as much air from the pocket when you close it as possible.

Grasses, tree branches, and other plant materials used for weaving will be the most temporary, and are generally used and burned immediately, or left to the elements. They’re good for flash spells. Making a corn silk dolly with oak and bay leaves at its core is a good money spell. Use red or green thread, ribbon, or string to hold the dolly in shape, and when you’re ready, leave it to nature, or throw it in the fire, and let the smoke or the weathering carry your needs on the wind, until what you desire “hears” its message and returns to you.

For plastic or porcelain dolls, the process is a little different. You may need to melt the plastic in order to fill the doll, though some dolls with articulated legs, heads, or arms, have openings to the inside of the doll and are easily stuffed that way. If you have to melt your way in, you’ll want something to patch the melt with – and yes, duct tape is a perfectly valid method. One of these days I’m going to write a very short blurb about the magickal applications of the material that holds the world together (though obviously not today…). For porcelain dolls, sometimes these have porcelain bodies, and sometimes cloth bodies. For a cloth body, it’s easy to just cut your way in, or unpick the stitching somewhere, and then resew it up after. For a porcelain body, I would suggest either a wax coating with your spell materials, or perhaps a paint mixed with the ashes. It may take a little bit of creativity to turn a porcelain doll into a poppet – more than I would make… but porcelain dolls make AMAZING spirit vessels.

Once you know what material you intend to make your poppet out of, it’s time to consider the innards. This is where a sound knowledge of low magick correspondences comes in. For example, a love spell poppet would be stuffed with rose petals and other herbs associated with love – the type of love dictates the herbs – and may possibly be made out of a pink or red materials. A poppet for better housing could be stuffed with news-paper or website listings, along with images of your ideal living situation. A poppet to banish problematic energies and purify you could be stuffed with crystals, sage, and salt – this type of poppet would of course either be a temporary poppet, or one that you intend to constantly refresh the ingredients of.

Mixing magickal practices with your poppets is another way to strengthen their already pretty powerful effects – for example, you can make your poppet, and then charge and dress a candle for the spell intention, and drip the candle wax over your poppet to link them. Then, as the candle burns, that energy is charging the poppet, adding a lot more oomph. You can do this with multiple candles, each time adding more power as it burns. You can stuff your poppets with written spells and sigils, too. Knot magick, which is most often used to store energies, could be wrapped around the doll, maybe even used in its creation – this would be handy in binding spells. You can even make a general, all-purpose poppet, and then make clothing for it – different clothes for different purposes.

Most poppets, when the magick is fulfilled, are buried, burned, or given to the elements. Poppets you intend for long term use should be stored somewhere safe, ESPECIALLY if you have used personal taglocks in their creation. You will also want to keep an eye on long-term poppets as they can develop a spirit separate from your own over time, and may end up needing either support, or a banishing or exorcism. You can also create poppets that are specifically for the housing of a spirit or servitor, but these will need upkeep and interaction, so they are much less frequently created and used, and need a more intensive creation process.

These guys are amazing tools that I think every practitioner should try out at least once… and I’m absolutely convinced that the experience will show you that they’re easy to make, easier to use, and a practice you come back to again and again. Seriously. Go make one. I’ll wait. 🙂
"She’s all the unsung heroes who... never quit." ― R. A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
― H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: First Series
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Zozo
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It's crazy to stumble across this post! Because one of the event contest prizes is a companionship with HagRaven who specializes in poppets. I've been noticing hecka synchronicities ever since my working with Uphir! :headbang:
I've Got Friends On The Otherside. :grouphug:
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